best place to buy a computer?

Hi Jen252!

Looking at you're list of specs and wishes for the PC, I don't think you'll get something for the £700 budget you mention which will 'last' well.

Photo editing and then as you say moving onto video editing are some of the most intense tasks you can ask a computer to do - in order to get good performance you are going to need better quality/performaing components. I get the impression this PC will be used for business purposes so it's even more imperitive you have a fast, capable, solid working machine.

There are PC's around the £700 mark which will go a good way in providing what you'd like, however the sticking point is that you say you'd like a small case. Small cases and usually dual graphics cards (SLI configuration) don't usually mix well - you'll need at least a 'normal' sized tower case - and some of the power house PC's aimed at photo and video editing are larger still as you must consider power supply requirements and cooling.

I'm kinda in the same position as you - as I'd like a compact unit to run Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 at home - so  don't want a large noisy 'usual' Server - I want something quiet and unobtrusive and the choices are very very narrow.

The Quad core Q6600 is a good processor and nowadays cheap in ready made PC's. Take a look at the MESH Elite Q4 FX at £699 inc VAT. I'd ask for an SLI upgrade and a 2nd HD upgrade, and maybe you could delete the Monitor if you already have a decent one? I'd say for photo editing you'd need a 24 inch 1920x1200 panel. This Mesh system sits at the bottom end of their performance range, and of course, the Midi tower maybe realistically the smallest you can go for the use you need from it.

I bought 2 Mesh PC's for the business about a year ago, one for web development work and one for our graphics designer guy - at the time I bought just base units, with a Core 2 Duo 6700 processor, and SLI config 2x256MB graphics cards and 2 GB RAM for the web guy and 4GB RAM for the graphics machine. I think I paid something like £850 each for them.

Seeing as you'll be moving into video editing, that where you'll need raw performance and grunt which I'd say really means you'd need a larger tower case for the cooling needs - the power supply will need to be a higher rated unit to cope.

If you want to try to 'get away'' with using a smaller SFF or even shuttle case have a look at these guys

http://www.theglowlounge.com/catalog/

I got really happy as they'd provide me a shuttle sized system filled to the gills with top end components, but I configured what I wanted and currently it's out of my budget! - I haven't used them as yet, but for a system like this, I don't want to use a cheaper guy in his bedroom type deal, I want somewhere I can go back to in case there's problems later.

Also, i'm fast coming to the conclusion, that wanting a small or ultra small PC and trying to run hot and powerful components is going to have an impact on reliability and by using the system more, those demands will be higher and thus reducing its reliabilty even more. I'm therefore going to resign myself to running a server on at least a 'normal' sized PC case and then maybe use some extra fans or water cooling to help with performance boosts etc.

Finally, have a look here
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/labs/94247/pc-nextday-zoostorm-57501-advanced-pc.html?searchString=photo+edit+pc

I can't find it right now, but a few issues back they did a review of about 8 Photo Editing PC's - right up your street in terms of needs - none as far as I can remember were in SFF or Shuttle sized cases for the reasons above. See if you can sift through the site or find another magaziens website where they've done comparisons for similar PC's.

I'm also going to say, if you do want to 'get the small system and run it and decide it's worth  the risk in potential reduced stability' then go right ahead - it's difficult to gauge what project you will be doing, they might even mean the machine doesnt break a sweat! in which case you'll be happy and have all that you want although I still suspect at a higher than £700 price tag!

Good luck! if you need any more info i'd be happy to help

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

P.S - the sound card, extra USB slots, wi-fi options can all be easily added in and are secondary to you main needs - could even go external solutions too- but internal upgrades are simple for these elements.

P.P.S - When I was evaluating I also looked at Evesham, but with their recent rather dodgy history I'm definitley not recommending them. One better place I found and talked to is www.cube247.co.uk these guys will build some fantastic specced machines and it was a close call between them and mesh when I ordered, these guys only lost out as they said they needed 5 days to build the PC whereas mesh could do it in 3, otherwise I think I'd have gone with these guys. UK company and UK based support which I liked. The other's I found were 'too small' of a business and really served local markets  - there may be other specialist system builders out there, but these are the ones I've been happy when speaking to them on a pre-sales level

The main problem I can see (with trying to control cost) is the dual requirement for the small case and the excellent graphics card....my Vostro is the slimline version and I found out too late (after I ordered it!) that it is a right pain to get excellent half-height graphics cards for them.  They are out there, but the best half-height card is still not quite up to par with the best full-height cards yet, simply because usually the power supply that comes with a slimline case is too small.  And they're more expensive.

I do know it's possible to get most of what I want. My ex had a small machine with an excellent graphics card in it, and it's still going strong after almost four years.

I'd thought about the cooling aspects of what I want/need and the size. I'm afraid the size is going to have to be the deciding factor, though. This machine will go in our living room, most likely, and will need to be discreet with good looks. (We use our living room as a working gallery/studio for Adam's art, and everything has to go to that aesthetic.)

As much as I'd like to rush into something (Adam's computer is dreadful for anything beyond very basic web browsing), I know I won't be able to get the money together for another month or so. At least that gives me a bit of time to really look through all the options.

I'm thinking I could probably go even a couple steps down on the graphics card. I've worked on much, much less and been okay (though far from happy). The processor speed is crucial for me, though. It's been the main frustration with the last few machines I've had, at home and at work. I can't deal with a machine that bottoms out when I'm running Photoshop, Quark, Word, Acrobat, and Firefox.

I looked at the Vostro range and wasn't happy with what they had to offer. If I remember correctly, when I was looking at the customization options on the Inspiron range, I was getting a better machine than I could get with a Vostro.

Anyway, thanks for the links. I'll check out all those sources and might come back with queries about some others I've come across.

I recently bought a Dell XPS laptop and had it built to my needs. I'm very happy with it and it was reasonably priced.

Hi LG!

Which XPS laptop did you get?

I have a XPS M1710 - for my power laptop/machine and a XPS M1330 for portability and more leisurely use. Both bought at fantastic discounts off ebay!

DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Hi Jen252

I came across this review for a PC and it may well be something for you to consider

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/156441/medion-mt-487-g.html

There are shortcomings at this price which the review covers, but with a little after market add-ons (more RAM and a better Graphics card) you might find yourself with a decent system at a relatively good price.

However as an update to the photo editing PC link I put up earlier which is from Sep 06, here's another well reviewed Photo Editing PC

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/156414/chillblast-fusion-photo-oc-ii.html

I suggest you could cheat a little bit and buy the main components of the Chillblast PC and get someone to assemble it for you Processor, RAM, Motherboard, hard disks etc and see if that saves you rather than buying the unit outright. Also, you can see from specs, just how different and demanding Photo editing PC's can be compared to budget PC's.

Cheers, DtM! West London UK!